Comments on: Some SEO Advice for Danny Sullivan

By: chriscd

chriscd — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:59:48 +0000

Although, I agree that you must listen to your client it is also the job of the SEO to suggest phrases and keywords that the site should optimize for. Now those can certainly be done with off-site stuff, when practical doing the on-site is necessary also.

I checked out his “blog”. It is quite impressive. Glad that he was using ASP, anything else would have been a huge marketing blunder. :O)

By: christinaniven

christinaniven — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:31:18 +0000

Didn’t know about Bill Gate’s new website until I read your post and followed your link over to Danny’s post and then followed his link to Bill’s site. I’m glad Gates is tackling important, substantive issues like poverty and education. I hope he updates his site regularly. Even without any changes, it would only take a few weeks to move up the SERPs. This is a case where all the author has to do is start a site and he’ll automatically get links and traffic. Going with the word “notes” implies he doesn’t have to blog regularly, just when he wants to. It also implies he doesn’t have to write long paragraphs, just brief notes. That’s a smart move on his part. His time is limited and this way he won’t get bogged down writing long formal essays. You of all people know how demanding it is to write formal posts. His posts or “notes” are like bullet points. I use bullet points throughout my own site because I’m not a good writer (too lazy to put in the effort) and my students aren’t all that literate. I didn’t see a comment button on any of his pages. My guess is that he just wants to enjoy his new site, kind of like a new hobby or toy. Shame on Danny for raining on Gate’s parade. Can’t Bill have a little fun diversion without being beat-up? Give the guy a break. He should be treated no differently than all us Mom and Pop types with hobby sites.

By: SEM Antics

SEM Antics — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:56:37 +0000

Apologies Michael, I mean’t Bill Gates’ brand influence and not Danny Sullivan’s…

By: Michael Martinez

Michael Martinez — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:35:45 +0000

I can’t agree that Danny Sullivan is going to influence many people to search for “bill gates blog”. Maybe more people will because of the all the publicity his article generated, but the difference between 1.5 million searches for “bill gates” and 1,000 searches for “bill gates blog” is measured in multiple orders of magnitude.

By: SEM Antics

SEM Antics — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:28:12 +0000

Hi Michael,

Although I think that Danny was writing with tongue firmly in cheek, the point that you have made is spot on. Fortunately his “brand” is big enough to make people change the way that people search without alot of effort.

By: Michael Martinez

Michael Martinez — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:44:01 +0000

Well, Bill Gates said he told his people to change the site tonight, so I think Danny definitely scored a major hit there.

By: neyne

neyne — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:48:50 +0000

As for the motivation behind the post, that is more than obvious. Can you imagine the links that the article will get if Bill Gates actually changes his Titles ? )

By: Michael Martinez

Michael Martinez — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:22:19 +0000

Well, we can certainly argue techniques and details but I will refrain from doing so as Danny certainly covered a lot of very good basic advice.

I think his choice of case study was brilliantly opportunistic. If you want to get people to talking about search engine optimization, Bill Gates is one of a few people whose names might start that type of dialog.

Perhaps there is a strategy behind Danny’s article that deserves better recognition. Nonetheless, I think he is sending a mixed signal.

By: hugoguzman

hugoguzman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:05:58 +0000

Interesting post, Michael. I agree with virtually everything you stated, except for the part about not recommending that Dial optimize for terms like hand soap, etc.

Not saying that should be a key facet of their marketing strategy by any means, but at the same time, if the phrase is relevant to the product they are marketing and they have the authority to rank for it, there’s no reason not to go after it.

It’s just another source of relevant and residual traffic. Granted, at the end of the day, the true ROI in terms of consumer conversion will be low, but the volume will more than make up for that.

By: neyne

neyne — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:14:14 +0000

While I agree with your points about the brand building and how the majority of SEOs (myself included) do not think about it often enough but rather have a knee-jerk reaction to fix metas/content/structure/canonization, there are some points in Danny’s post that are valid.

Even if Bill Gates did not start Gates Notes so it can be a regular blog, he did start it to reach people. As many people as possible. No one starts a blog or an opinion website to reach as little people as possible or to show it only to those that are looking for it in the first place.

No, I believe it would be a safe bet to say that Mr. Gates would like more people to read his blog, i would assume he wants to also to reach the people that are not looking for his brand. Under this assumption, Danny’s point about duplicate Title’s is completely valid. Why wouldn’t people searching for Sundance-related queries find out from Gates Notes that he is going to attend? Why not make sure that the message is delivered to as many people as possible from its source and not some PR regurgitating link farm? If he writes (and he probably will about his Malaria combating efforts, why not try and reach those people that are searching for malaria-related keywords and not just for [bill gates malaria] ?

The purpose of media is to allow the author to reach as many people as possible. True, Bill Gates has a very wide base of people that will search him out no matter how he optimizes his Titles, but that is not everybody. Bill Gates does not *need* to optimize his titles, his business will not fail because of it, but by not optimizing them, he is missing on people that are not automatically connecting him with the issue they are searching for, hence his brand does not play a part.